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Report: England vs India (Women), Test - Day 2

Sarah Taylor revives England

England women were leading by 88 runs with four wickets in hand at stumps on Day 2 against India women in the ongoing Test match at Wormsley. At the end of day’s play Sarah Taylor (30*) and Jenny Gunn (2*) had taken the hosts to 110/6 in an unbroken 26-run stand.

After bowling India out for 114 earlier in the day, the home team lost opener Heather Knight for a duck without a run on the board. Jhulan Goswami had the opener nick to the wicketkeeper off the second ball of the innings to give India an early breakthrough.

Tammy Beaumont then joined Lauren Winfield in the middle and the pair added 35 runs for the second wicket until Ekta Bisht trapped Beaumont lbw for 12. 38 runs later Shikha Pandey claimed the opener to end the third wicket stand before taking shape. With England captain Charlotte Edwards on 20 and Sarah Taylor yet to open the account, rain interrupted play with England on 73/3 in the 29th over of the match.

Bisht later claimed the England skipper for 20 soon after play resumed. The next to be sent back was Lydia Greenway in the next over. Goswami accounted for the fifth England wicket as India strangled the flow of runs.

With runs hard to come by Natalie Sciver and Jenny Gunn trudged on for eight more overs before Sciver was dismissed by Shubhlakshmi Sharma.

Sarah Taylor then farmed the strike and shouldered the responsibility of building on the lead. While Taylor did the bulk of the scoring, Gunn provided support by stoically holding her ground. Playing with determination, the pair saw the team through to the end of day’s play without further lapses.

Earlier resuming on 87/6, India overcame the five-run deficit in the morning and finished the innings with a 22-run lead. Gunn who had rattled the visitors line-up on the first day struck first to castle Goswami with India on 95. Kate Cross and Sonia Odedra then claimed the remaining three wickets to bowl India out. N Niranjana who had claimed four wickets earlier on the previous day finished as the top-scorer for her team scoring 27 until being lbw by Cross.

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Dhoni to play five bowlers at Oval

With 1-2 down , MS Dhoni’s Team India face the herculean task of saving the series in the last Test, at the Oval. There are quite a few questions that need to be answered going into the fifth Test for India after their shocking batting collapse on the third day of the Manchester Test that led to an innings defeat.

Talking on the eve of the match, MS Dhoni said the issue has been discussed and addressed and that he is hoping for a better show at the Oval.“We already have spoken about it but I really don’t like to speak about it in the press conference,” Dhoni said. “It’s more of a team environment thing. We have addressed that.

“It was not just that game. In the games before that as well we have lost some wickets in very short span of time. It is not really about addressing it but more about soaking it up, learning from the last game and making sure that we don’t repeat those mistakes.”

A crucial reason for India’s batting failures on this tour has been the lack of runs from the bat of their middle-order lynchpin, Virat Kohli. Dhoni said it is important for him to maintain his self belief and not lose confidence.

“It is important for him to remain positive. If he can score runs in Australia or South Africa, there’s no reason why he can’t score runs in English conditions,” Dhoni said of Virat.

“You need to assess what you are doing differently or what bowlers are making you do differently. It’s always that cat and mouse game between batsmen and bowlers. If a bowler wants you to do a particular thing, as a batsman you would like to avoid it. As a batsman you would want him to bowl at your areas.

“Virat is batting well but not with the desired amount of runs. But he has been middling the ball well in the nets and we have seen glimpses of that in the few Test innings that he has played here. He started off well but got a good delivery and got out. He needs to back himself and make sure that he is not getting into areas where is vulnerable,” Dhoni said.

While his ace batsmen have been short on runs, Dhoni himself played a very gritty knock in first innings of the Old Trafford Test. His 71-run knock was the perfect testimony of how one can overcome technical deficiencies with adaptability.

Dhoni said he is aware of the fact that he doesn’t have the best Test batting technique and so he works on making the most of what he does have.

“I might be one of the batsmen with the most horrible techniques when it comes to Test cricket,” Dhoni said in a charming self deprecating way. “It’s all about adjustment for me.

“People often speak about technique, but you also must realise that we are coming from a place where we play 70-80 per cent our cricket and there we develop our cricket.

“The problem I was facing was that what I was doing the nets, I wasn’t able to take it to the middle. That’s the big step you have to take. I batted well in the last two games. If I can continue to do that in this game I would be happy.

“For me, it’s not only about runs but also about how I bat. It is difficult to change technique all of a sudden. We all have our own technique and we need to have confidence in our technique. Still you need to be aware of the limitations of the technique that you have.

Looking at the next Test, Dhoni said it would be important not to think about it as a do-or-die match with the series at stake. He rather wants his team to concentrate on winning a single session at one time.

“We know if we win this match what impact it will have on the series. But let’s not look at the series because it becomes like a long term goal,” Dhoni said. “We should look at small goals, from the start of the Test match tomorrow and break it up into sessions.

“If you win more sessions than the opposition and if you don’t do really badly in the sessions that you have lost, you will end up wining the Test match. That is the priority for us.”

Talking about his bowling combination for the Oval Test, Dhoni said he would go with five bowlers. He also refuted any suggestion of resting Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has been shouldering a large chunk of the bowling responsibilities among the pacers.

“He has managed the workload quite well so far,” Dhoni said of Bhuvi. “He has a few niggles here and there but he is always close to 80 percent fit. Also, not to forget the amount of bowling he has done along with the batting and fielding.

“So it’s good that he is shaping up well. He is also someone who we cannot afford to rest at this point in the series. So it is an important game for us and hopefully he will turn up fit for the game,” Dhoni said.